RETALIATION

17. Going Solo

"What's the mission?" I raised an eyebrow at the doctor. "Am I supposed to go and rescue the team...?"

"No," Ivan sighed. His face made out an expression that told me that this supposed mission of mine was going to be harder than I thought.

I followed Doctor Ivan from the hospital ward that Kallie was in, both of us walking down a hallway that led to a projecting room. He opened a high tech laptop and connected it to a pad glowing with blue lights, and the screen in front lights up with the shocking image of Aisha. I heard his finger slam down on the space bar, now playing the video to the screen.

Strapped to a bed, in iron retraints, was the one of the top members of our Immune Squad. I was just...shaken by her appearance. Aisha's face was nearly unrecognizable, with black and blue bruises covering her face, swollen skin that made my insides twist out of discomfort. Her hair appeared to had burn streaks, matted everywhere and tangled in a thorny mess.

It got even worse from there. Whoever from this fucking enemy organization was filming, had decided to zoom out of her facial area, and I nearly felt like fainting. As the camera showed off more of Aisha's body, I could see more and more cuts and sores all over her bare arms and legs. Luckily she wasn't stripped naked and then placed against the bed, but it was enough fucked up and exposed skin to make me feel like squirming.

     "Turn it off?" Ivan gave off his usual nonchalant vibe.

     I rubbed my eyes in a failed attempted to try and forget what I saw. "Please," I begged.

     "So sorry you had to see her like that," he mumbled while closing the software and removing a disk from the side of the computer.

     "Where are the others?"

     "Either dead or in waiting to be filmed for you and Kallie to see," he murmured.

     This is fucking horrible.

     "Where are they?" I stopped Ivan before he could even step into the doorway.

     "I thought they were being held in the same place that Kallie went to, but it turns out the Lazarus has been moving around to cover their tracks."

     Shit.

     "Do they still want me to surrender to them?"

     The doctor paused. I could totally tell that he was trying to think of a lie to try and reassure me. His occupied fingers clicked the top of his ballpoint pen down repetitively, a clicking sound that eventually faded in my hearing as I continued to pressurize my stare at him. Neither of us flinched, not once, or even a single muscle reflex spasm.

     "Yes."

     He's telling me the truth.

     Doctor Ivan was reluctant, but he at least bothered to give me the truth about the Lazarus' intentions.

     "I suggest that you head to the terminal to wait for further instruction," he said with his back turned to mine. Then he walked straight out the door before it slid shut.

     I soon followed and exited the projection room, walking straight to my dorm. Though the doctor instructed me to directly go to that launch pad that led to the surface level of the city, I wanted to have a moment in my room- alone, a way for me to try and think of a back up plan. Being such a pessimist, I wanted to try and utilise my negative thinking for better purposes. It sounded weird in my head. Who knew that stupid little Dan from Bastille knew how to use his pessimism for strategic purposes?

     "Hurry up, Daniel!"

     "Coming!" I yelled from the dorm.

     Waiting for me at the terminal, was Kallie. She had been placed in a wheelchair, and luckily the swelling in her face toned down and became the cluster of bruises that I now saw in front of me. Doctors and surgeons had gotten Kallie to change into a crop top and shorts, her hair was also tied up in a braid. Badass style.

     Bandages circled around Kallie's torso as she wheeled towards me with a strained smile from the pain of her stabs, cuts, and bruises. Meanwhile I could see the stereotypical creamy white gauze covering her hand and part of her lower arm region. And her other arm was covered in a gauze on the upper half. I couldn't even imagine the amount of pain she's been through.

     "Be careful, Dan," Kallie wheeled closer and gazed up with soft yet fiery eyes.

     I cracked a smile.

     "Sure thing, Kallie." I leaned down and wrapped my arms around her. The fifteen year old girl hugged me tightly as if it was the last day of my life. Then a cough separated us.

     "Dan," Ivan referred to my normal name. "Don't forget that you're going alone. No back up forces. We'll send out someone if you contact our control centre via your watch."

     "Uh huh," I nodded. "Got it."

     I walked to the platform and politely put my arms around my back in patience as I watched a load of doctors, including Ivan, play with a bunch of buttons. Then I felt the urge to stumble back as the platform rumbled while levitating back to the surface level of the flower shop. Soon, I lost sight of the underground base and was surrounded by flowers in the bright daylight.

     People strolled by the shop, not being able to spot me through the darkly tinted windows. I spotted a back door, first with my head down at the watch to stare at the coordinates on a map. When I felt confident, I pushed the back exit and ventured out into the alley, toward a cluster of factories under construction. I was vulnerable and alone at this point.

     Time to go solo.